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Hurricane rattles shuttle’s fuel tank factory

By Kelly Young

The Louisiana-based Michoud Assembly Facility, which makes the space shuttle’s external fuel tanks, survived the wrath of Hurricane Katrina on Monday with just minor damage, according to initial reports.

Katrina pounded three states on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, leaving over 50 people dead, large areas flooded and millions without power.

The eye of the hurricane made its first Gulf landfall near Buras, Louisiana, about 120 kilometres south-east of Michoud. The facility, located 24 kilometres east of New Orleans’ French Quarter, and nearer the eye of the storm, suffered roof damage and many small leaks.

Sixty-five of the facility’s 2000 employees stayed at the Lockheed Martin-run plant during the hurricane, which produced local gusts of up to 125 miles (200 km) per hour.

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Evan McCollum, a spokesman for Lockheed Martin, based in Denver, Colorado, US, told New Scientist&colon; “Several roofs at Michoud have damage that will need repairs. There are a few broken windows where limbs of trees have crashed in and the facility will be closed until at least next Tuesday. It’s still without power. We have generators providing electricity to emergency crews, but they’ll need to get power back before they open the facility.”

Last week, workers prepared for a potential disaster by boxing up equipment and placing it off the floor in case of a flood. The 832-acre factory is flanked on two sides by canals, and lies just to the west of Lake Borgne.

Safely docked

Kennedy Space Center is in the process of shipping three external tanks back to Michoud to evaluate their foam insulation.

On shuttle Discovery’s most recent flight, a substantial chunk of foam fell off just over 2 minutes into the flight – it could have endangered the shuttle if the debris had struck the orbiter in passing. NASA wants to eliminate all sizeable pieces of foam shedding during launch to prevent a repeat of the Columbia disaster.

The first external tank being sent back from Kennedy Space Center to Michoud stayed docked at Port Canaveral, Florida, as engineers did not want it to be on the water while this storm charged through the Gulf.

NASA’s Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi was also in Katrina’s path. Sandwiched between Biloxi, Mississippi and New Orleans, Stennis tests and certifies NASA’s rocket engines and propulsion systems. Hundreds of people also took shelter from the storm in Stennis’ six buildings. But it was not clear on Monday how well the facility fared in the storm.